Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (1 John 4:1)

Saturday, October 08, 2011

Whose Global Kingdom Come?

A.D. 2000: When the Great Commission
Ended. . . and Dominion Began

“Now, what I think will happen is that the gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all nations, that we will begin, as Jesus said to his disciples, begin making disciples of nations.”—C. Peter Wagner, NPR’s Fresh Air, 10-3-11 [emphasis added]

By Berit Kjos

Editor’s Note: This article was originally authored and privately distributed by Berit Kjos (www.crossroad.to) in 1993 under the title of “Waiting for a Global Kingdom, Not the Coming King.” In October 1996, it was finally published in The Christian Conscience magazine with the current title “Whose ‘Global Kingdom’ Come?”

Recently, while searching some important early history on the rise of the modern Dominionism movement, we re-discovered this article. It contains a fascinating history of events and key personnel leading up to the year 2000. Readers will note the prominent role of C. Peter Wagner in adopting a new evangelical consensus for the completion of the altered version of the “Great Commission.” The article especially sheds some light on certain new doctrines and practices.

This article is being reproduced in its entirety in the same form as it was published in 1996, with only a few minor editing changes for clarity. To update the reader, whenever we have written about these people or their agendas in the past we have inserted webpage links.

Missions outreaches, and individuals closely connected with them, have strange associations and new doctrines for the coming millennium.

“I will change the understanding and expression of Christianity across the earth in one generation.”—Mike Bickle, Kansas City Fellowship pastor, quoting the supposed voice of God

It’s time to get ready for celebration 2000.
For centuries seers and sages have been transfixed on the year 2000. More recently, trend watchers, planners and futurists have hooked their sights to this guiding star. AD 2000, the year itself has been a powerful archetypal symbol for the “millennium” — the end of history and the beginning of a global civilization of peace and prosperity.—Jay Gary, in his Bimillennial Research Report “dedicated to exploring how the thousands of bimillennial celebrations of life and civilization in the year 2000 can truly leave a legacy for the entire human family that will endure the test of time."

”I dream
That the third millennium
Will be declared and made
Humanity’s First Millennium of
Peace."—Robert Muller, New Age UN leader and “father of global education”

Introduction

Two complementary movements within the church are preparing God’s people for deception at an unprecedented scale: today’s neglect of Biblical truth as an authoritative standard and the seductive call to global spirituality in a new millennium of peace and unity. Both are shaping a church that will welcome an all-inclusive global spirituality and a counterfeit world spiritual kingdom that promises security and oneness to all — except those who resist.

First, today’s atmosphere of unquestioning tolerance has undermined the authority of Scriptures as a standard for testing personal beliefs as well as public teaching by Christian leaders. Afraid to be judged legalistic or exclusive, pastors and authors shun unpopular Biblical standards. Some have redefined sin, replacing traditional sins like homosexuality and adultery with a politically correct emphasis on intolerance, injustice and insufficient love for self.

Fueled by popular books… as well as new interpretations of Scriptures, this movement twists God’s Word to fit contemporary values. Using inclusive labels like spirituality rather than Christianity, it broadens the boundaries of God’s family far beyond the influence of the cross.

Distracted from memorizing and meditating on God’s Word, people neither have nor use Scriptures as their standard for truth and reality. God’s warning in 2 Timothy 4:3-4 fits our times: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.”

A strange paradox makes God’s people more vulnerable than ever to deception: more people own and read Bibles (and are held responsible for its teaching: Luke 12:48), yet today’s clamor for personal rather than Scriptural interpretations has dulled spiritual discernment and opened the door to all kinds of “deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons.” (1 Timothy 4:1: “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils.”)

Second, the seductive call to global spirituality in a new millennium of peace and unity has found a ready audience in today’s Biblically illiterate culture. New groups and coalitions are sprouting across America, beckoning Christians to forget about end time warnings about a great apostasy — and prepare for a bright new future in a coming millennium of global bliss. If this was an obscure movement led by cultic, New Age teachers, it could be readily dismissed. But its organizers and promoters are respected Christian pastors and authors, men who command a following and whom few dare question.

This article will take a look at several examples of this movement to prepare to celebrate the year 2000, among them, The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, the Open Church Ministries, and the March for Jesus.

Christians and New AgersPlan Joint Celebrations for AD 2000

In his AD 2000 Bimillenial Research Report (March-April 1992), Jay Gary, a leader in the Christian world evangelization movement and Executive Director of the BimillEnnial Global Interaction Network (BEGIN) and Celebration 2000, announced the “Key People” involved in planning the millennial celebrations: himself, Paul Guest, and Robert Muller, chancellor of United Nations’ University of Peace in Costa Rica who attributes his global education philosophy to the occult teachings of spirit guide Djwhal Khul.

Why should this strange partnership alarm Christians everywhere? Who else is involved?

Though relatively few Christians recognize his name, Jay Gary has become a forceful leader in today’s vast and vital effort to evangelize the world for Christ by year 2000. From 1978 to 1982, he “developed the Perspectives Study Program, a nationwide lay mission study effort, which now touches more than 5000 students a year.” From 1982 to 1986, he served as executive editor for World Christian magazine. Next, he worked as a research consultant to the Worldwide Student NetWork, Campus Crusade for Christ’s year 2000 program to reach college students around the world. He has coordinated the AD 2000 Global Service office in Colorado Springs,… and he calls himself a “Congress Planner with the Lausanne movement.”

Jay Gary and his wife Olgy live in Colorado Springs. Together they authored The Countdown Has Begun— a book which documents his Biblical beliefs and working relationships with many respected Christian leaders and organizations involved with world evangelization. He seems to be a passionate and tireless soldier for Christ compelled by one essential God-given purpose: to bring the gospel to every corner of the world by AD 2000. His credentials as a sincere servant of God seem beyond reproach.

Why then would he join forces with Robert Muller, the former under-secretary of the United Nations, whose spiritual tutors include former Buddhist U.N. leader U Thant, former occult Masonic leader Foster Bailey, and Alice Bailey, his wife who channeled the Tibetan Master Djwhal Khul?

The World Goodwill Newsletter published by Lucis (formerly Lucifer) Press, which was founded by Foster and Alice Bailey, offers a clue. It describes B.E.G.I.N., the global networking organization founded and directed by Jay Gary, and endorses the relationship between Gary and Muller.

The Bi-MillEnnial Global Interaction Network (BEGIN) is a group of concerned world citizens who circulate information and ideas on celebrating the year 2000 as a planetary jubilee with an agenda of hope. The question which BEGIN seeks to address is: “How can the thousands of bi-millennial celebrations of life and civilizations truly leave a legacy for the entire human family that will endure the test of time?”

In a letter to World Goodwill, BEGIN Executive Director Jay E. Gary writes: “One common project we are developing is an `International Year of Thanksgiving’ in 2000, especially through the United Nations. Dr. Robert Muller has given leadership to this proposal. If any of your readers would like to bring definition to a World Thanksgiving Year in 2000, marked by reflection, reconciliation, and gratitude between nations, cultures, and peoples, please have them correspond with us. We are collecting articles and papers on these themes for an upcoming Lets Talk 2000 Forum. [emphasis added]

Apparently Jay Gary does not seem to discern the danger inherent in an alliance and joint celebration with occult world leaders. Assuming that most of the subscribers to the World Goodwill Newsletter share Alice Bailey’s occult views and welcome Djwhal Khul’s demonic teachings and proddings toward a new world order, one wonders what Jay Gary hopes to gain for his “articles and papers” by asking, “please have them correspond with us.”

On the first page of his Bimillennial Research Report (March-April 1992), Jay Gary gave an uncritical endorsement of Robert Muller, announced the coming “World Parliament of Religions,” and apparently approved the current transformation of public education into a process for conforming children around the world to fit globalists’ agendas:

United Nations Proclamation. In his latest book, The Birth of a Global Civilization, former Assistant Secretary-General, Robert Muller, proposes the United Nations proclaim the year 2000 as an International Year of Thanksgiving, preceded by“unprecedented thinking, action, and determination to solve our remaining problems in order to enter the third millennium with a clean slate.”He calls upon the UN to establish a Preparatory Committee which would stimulate and coordinate celebration 2000 preparations among the professions, institutions, media, business, citizen organizations, religion and the arts.

World Parliament to look for 21st Century Agenda. ... With the help of Dr. Gerald Barney, director of the Institute for the 21st Century, these conferences [held in preparation for the Chicago centenary of Parliament of World Religions] will address the role of spirituality in meeting challenges which confront the planet.

ABC’s for the 21st Century. Sherry Schiller, head of Countdown 2001, an education consulting group, feels that most education commissions, reports, and goals which target 2000, have sought only to reform education, whereas the challenge approaching the 21st Century is to transform it.

Jay Gary’sBimillennial Research Report closes with a booklist and order form. The recommended books include Muller’s The Birth of a Global Civilization, Isaac Asimov’sThe March of the Millennia, and Global Responsibility by Hans Kung, the German theologian responsible for drafting a global ethics statement at the recent World Parliament of Religions.

Apparently Jay Gary’s goals match those of Robert Muller. No doubt, his endorsement of Muller and his global philosophy has opened some high-level Christian doors to the New Age global agenda. World evangelization is not new phenomenon to Muller, who has been persuading world leaders for decades to follow his spiritual path. According to Lucis Press’ World Goodwill Newsletter,

In 1978 Robert Muller and Margaret Mead challenged the people of the world to prepare for the year 2000 by a “worldwide collaborative process of unparalleled thinking, education and planning for a just and sustainable human world order.” ...[An] international team of scholars have designed the project as a creative response to what they refer to as “six compelling essentials”; a New Sense of Power; Transcultural Dialogue; Citizen Participation; a Global Forum; a Holistic Perspective; a Spiritual Renaissance; Environmental Security; Economic Security; and Disarmament.[emphasis added]

As former Presbyterian pastor Eugene Peterson affirmed in his strange article in Christianity Today, “Spirit Quest,” a renewed yearning for spiritual experience marks this final decade of the 20th century. However, while many of the spiritual paths beckoning people today may sound Christian, they have little in common with genuine Christianity. Instead, they fall in line with innumerable New Age movements toward a global spirituality that will unite all religions — but shun Biblical monotheism.

When Robert Muller talks about a “Spiritual Renaissance,” he doesn’t mean a Christian revival. He is referring to a unified global religion that will join all people and nations under the benevolent reign of spiritually “wise” UN leaders. He envisions a world of spiritual beings evolving through reincarnation and fulfilling the law of karma -— doctrines he learned from Buddhist monk U Thant, former head of the United Nations. Along with Al Gore and other leaders who call themselves Christians, he bases his view of the future on Teilhard de Chardin’s teaching about man’s spiritual evolution toward an Omega point of perfect unity.

Unlike Jay Gary, Muller has everything to gain and nothing to lose by his alliance with Christian evangelists. His occult beliefs can easily assimilate other gods and conform them to his occult worldview. Christianity cannot make similar compromises without rejecting the uniqueness of Christ, severing its relationship with God, and losing its true identity.

We had better heed God’s warning in 2 Corinthians 6:14-18: KJV: “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwellin them, and walk in [them]; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

The Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization

Lausanne was launched by Billy Graham in 1974. At the first Lausanne Congress in Lausanne, Switzerland, Dr. Graham challenged the Church to complete the task of world evangelization by the end of the century. Lausanne II, held in Manila during ten days in July, 1989, reinforced this vital message to its more than 400 participants.

Jay Gary has served the Lausanne Committee since the mid-eighties. His 1989 book, Countdown 2000 indicates that:

for the past three years he has worked with the Lausanne movement as the program director of Leadership ‘88, a national conference for younger leaders and, more recently, as assistant to Lausanne’s International Director. Jay served as the consultation director for the Global Consultation onWorld Evangelization by AD 2000 and Beyond, held in Singapore in January, 1989.

His wife Olgy designed the layout for the Lausanne Committee’s magazine called World Evangelization.

The Lausanne movement was to serve a vital function of awakening the Church to the urgency of the Great Commission. We believed the intentions of Billy Graham and other faithful visionaries and organizers were to serve God and to share the Gospel everywhere. Yet, some strange concepts and ideas have crept into “The New Lausanne.” Ponder the following disturbing statements from Lausanne’s magazine, World Evangelization (September, 1993):

…a new vision began to emerge — one of a Lausanne movement “owned and operated” [Isn’t God the owner?, ed.] by the national, regional and special interest Lausanne committees. Taking this new direction also requires us to redesign the international structure of Lausanne so that it provides what the “new owners” both need and can afford.

…we will announce our intent to dissolve the old Lausanne structure and issue an invitation to the new owners to decide what kind of new international Lausanne structure they both want and can afford...

This meeting will celebrate Lausanne’s 20th birthday...and launch the Lausanne of the future. This meeting will be planned by Lausanne’s “new owners.” [Dr. Bryant Myers, Administrative Committee Chairman of Lausanne and vice president for mission and evangelism for World Vision International, speaking on Lausanne’s future.]

It has made me realize the impossibility of trying to contain within a Lausanne organization all that is inspired by its spirit. [Rev. Tom Houston, Lausanne’s new minister-at-large. Notice his involvement with the Open Church described below.]

Unfortunately ...contemporary Evangelicals ...have been influenced by a dispensational theology that has given them a Gospel without a Kingdom, and by a Western world view that has deprived them of a holistic understanding of human beings and the world.[Samuel Escobar, Professor at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary, talking about “The New Theological Agenda” and a message by Norberto Saracco, a pentecostal pastor from Argentina. Notice this same argument in the section below on the Open Church.]

First we have the example of Robert de Nobili (1577-1656) ...who went to India as a Jesuit missionary ...he passed for a guru, and Indian saintly figure, and even for a sannyasi, a wild, holy man, adopting Hindu customs and religious terminology to define his own personal piety.

Matteo Ricci... adopted the opposite path to de Nobili by assimilating into upper-class Chinese society during the Ming dynasty... and eventually undergoing a profound cultural transformation as a Confucian scholar.

It is also apparent...that Christian missions expanded and deepened pluralism - in language, social encounter and ethnic participation in the Christian movement.[Dr. Lamin Sanneh, Professor of Missions and World Christianity and Professor of History at Yale College.]

·Every cell in our body carries two codes: the code of the cell and the code of the organism — the whole. Theoretically, you can make a whole from one tiny part, because the code is there. I believe it’s true in God’s work. I believe every healthy Christian individual has both his personal code — or plan or calling — but he also instinctively knows he’s part of a larger thing, and the code of the whole is in him, so that if you only had one Christian and a Bible preaching, you would have a New Testament church as he was added to.

·Since mid 70s there has been an amazing awakening in pockets here and there and a moving together of converging lives, as you mentioned, and so there is a Gideon’s Army, a remnant waking up, that is going to, in 30 or 40 years from now, when these home school kids, when all of this big stuff, the big prayer movements, the prophetic movement, the political activist movement, the unity movement, the whole bit, when all of this congeals in the next 10-15 years, there’s going to be some explosive growth — not only in evangelism and personal holiness — but whole countries are going to change and just come rushing into the Kingdom of God.

·...there’s a need for change — and the megachurch announces the need for two kinds of change: One is a change in our thinking — our constructs of what Gold is trying to do and how we will go about doing it. And that leads to a change in morphosis or form.

·I see this as an identity change issue. And people who are coming to our churches tend to see themselves as spectators... vs. being ministers themselves. And that will take an entirely new vantage point from which to see ourselves.

·We should discover that every locale on earth, and every culture, and every matrix, there should be an indigenous organic way that the church expresses itself.

The book The Open Church by James H. Rutz seeks to totally reinvent the church, gutting traditions. The lion on this book’s cover depicts the church as a lion (not Jesus as the “Lion of Judah,” Rev. 5:5) which is worshipping the fire on the altar — which is not the Holy Spirit. This unscriptural perversion of the doctrine of the Trinity is indicative of the proposed experiential worship model that de-emphasizes the teaching of the Word. On the tape there was a closing statement by David Bradshaw or Jim Rutz:

·Do all the high goals in the future church sound unrealistic to you? Under the status quo they would be. But remember, we’re talking about a revamped worship service that could transform your people like a cold shower. You won’t have many spiritual blobs that show up once a week, then vanish. You’ll have people of action, concerned participants. Powerful loving disciples who are taking their places as leaders in the battle force under the Commander of the armies of heaven. Let’s stop playing church. The time has come to end our 1700 year experiment in spectator Christianity. Like a doting parent, God our Father is glad to take whatever He can get in the way of worship, but... He would be a whole lot happier for once — just once in His life — seeing Christians were allowed to stand to his feet say, “I love you Lord, you mean everything to me.”

The Open Church Ministries is one of the many ministries located in Colorado Springs that are now teaching these new beliefs about the supposed necessity of radically transforming the Church for the 21st century. The Open Church, by James T. Rutz further expounds on these new doctrinal understandings of the kingdom, the structure of the church, and an anticipated coming revival.

The Jesus March

This is another fast-spreading, catchy movement which started in England. It’s leaders —Gerald Coates (Alpha founder), Lynn Green, Graham Kendrick, and Roger Forster (who pastors a church in London) — met with Jay Gary, C.Peter Wagner and other spiritual leaders at the Sheraton Hotel in Denver last December 6-7 (1992).

According to Tricia Tillen, who publishes a quarterly newsletter called Mainstream, the aim of the March for Jesus is to take the nations through spiritual warfare — not through evangelism. Graham Coates, one of the four founders, explains,

Marching for Jesus is a prophetic act which demonstrates that the meek shall inherit the earth. Each footstep on the march is an action which claims the ground and says, “This is God’s world and we are claiming it for God.”...we do not inherit the world by buying it... but by shifting the spiritual powers that have been allocated in the nations....

The theology of marching will emerge as we engage in it and listen to what the Spirit is saying.[Roger Forster]

By now we were beginning to think that the principalities, power and spiritual strongholds had historical roots, so we looked into different parts of London where we felt there was a stronghold of greed... (p.17) [Lynn Green (1985)]

We don’t know what happens when we declare the victory of Jesus into the cosmos - what we do know is something happens. (p. 140)[Roger Forster]

...we began to notice that a change took place in the heavens - the awareness was subjective, but others also noticed it. (p.19)[Roger Forster (1974)]

...the aim was to mobilize Christians to proclaim the name of Jesus and to pronounce the defeat of the spiritual forces entrenched in the capital. (p.28)[Gerald Coates (9187)]

Did London become a less immoral or greedy city as a result? Was there revival? Did people turn to God in repentance? No ...Crime figures continue to rise; pornography, drugs, abortion... are worse than ever. The Jesus March and evangelistic events are designed to bring all denominations together in unity — unity is the key. The organizers believe Christ cannot come until there is full visible unity in the Church. Anyone who stands in the way is accused of destroying unity — and that’s also why doctrine is thrown out. Doctrine divides, they say, so let’s ignore the Scriptures and concentrate on love and unity.

As Paul Coates says, “Doctrinal unity is important in terms of the foundations of our faith, but it seems everyone who comes together on doctrinal unity ends up splitting... Then there are those who strive for methodological unity — this nit-picking fundamentalist evangelical approach to scripture that asks questions like, “Where is marching in the Bible?” Methods are important, but we are not primarily looking for methodological unity, we are primarily looking for relational unity — a display of love, unity and joy.” (p.13)

To cover up the poverty of their theology, such teachers hide behind one or two texts plucked out of the Bible, such as “judge not lest ye be judged” and “touch not the Lord’s anointed.” Employing personal criticism as their weapon, they accuse brothers and sisters of unloving attitudes while backing away from the real issue — the correct understanding and use of Scriptures. March for Jesus is promoting a new doctrine that the world will be won for Christ by conducting spiritual warfare in the heavenlies, marching on land to stake out territories for Christ, and achieving “visible” unity. The traditional missions emphasis on evangelism and sharing the Gospel is missing.

Steps Taken By Other Ministries Toward the Envisioned Church of the 21st Century

Tricia Tillen also presented the following information in Mainstream:

Dawn 2000 - Discipling a Whole Nation: This nationwide evangelistic scheme has been called “The Greatest Evangelistic Vision of the Decade.” Its leaders envision winning 250,000 people in ten days during March, 1994. Founder Jim Montgomery explains the principle behind this explosive growth — a formula not unlike the New Age teaching on a “critical mass” and Ken Kesey’s proverbial story about the hundredth monkey:

When Jesus Christ becomes incarnate in the midst of every small group of people of 400 to 1000, then the last practical and measurable goal has been reached towards making a disciple of that nation... [Wherever they go, they will plant] a group of people who are incarnatingChrist in their local neighborhood.[emphasis added].

Paul Crouch’s Super-Church: In his October, 1993 newsletter, Paul Crouch condemns those who examine current teachings in the light of Scriptures as wolves among the flock, false prophets, false teachers and antichrists. He quotes 2 Peter 2:3 (“their damnation slumbers not”), then says:

“But the future for the kingdom-builders is different. No plagues will touch them and “when this blood-washed throng finally realizes who we are and arises as that mighty army that no man can number, His kingdom will finally come...” [emphasis added]

Faith teacher Ulf Ekman:“The church of the nineties will not be a weak church, it will be a strong church ... there will be love in it — a love of purity and right...that will eliminate rebellion. It will be a forceful church, a kingly church, an influential and attacking church - even a military church — single-minded in purpose, zealous and absolutely fanatical.”(From address at Faith ’90 titled “A Faith that Takes a Nation,” emphasis added)

John Hinkle. Pastor of Christ Church in Los Angeles claimed that God spoke audibly to him and told him that the cleansing of the earth will take place in June 1994. (It didn’t happen).

Target Earth. It would be easy to dismiss these examples as notable exceptions. However, look at Derek Prince’s outline of last days events from a book on world evangelization prepared for Lausanne II titled Target Earth. The Necessity of Diversity in a Holistic Perspective on World Missions. The author/editor, Frank Caleb Janssen, lives in Colorado Springs and is a friend of the Garys. He is also one of the contributors to the Open Church audio cassette. Note the strange theology that is intermixed with global missions strategy.

1.A Latter Rain Revival leading to a vast end-times harvest in which countless missions will be saved.

2.Parallel with this, a severe judgment from God on all who resist the “revival”. [Including us? A “cleansing”?, ed.]

These examples are just the tip of the iceberg. Many, many more examples could be provided, raising seriousquestions about the unorthodox beliefs on the coming millennium held by some of our esteemed Christian leaders who are connected to global evangelization.

·The Christian Conscience published several other articles on Jary Gary and his New Age associations: in the May 1995 issue, April 1996 and June 1996. The April 1996 article is by Warren Smith, “Evangelicals and New Agers Together,” and can be found online here: http://www.erwm.com/EvangelicalsandNewAgers.htm

·World Goodwill Newsletter, Lucis Press, 1993. No. 3. p. 7. 6.

·Eugene Peterson,”Spirit Quest,” Christianity Today, No. 8, 1993, 27.

·Al Gore, Earth in the Balance:Ecology and the Human Spirit. (Boston:Houghton Mifflin, 1992).

·Mainstream, Winter 1993. Box 23, Belper, Derbys. DE56 1QR, UK. For more information about critical mass and the influential myth about the hundredth monkey read chapter five in Your Child and the New Age by Berit Kjos.

·Follow the live links in this updated article for more current information. Note that many of the themes in this article have been covered by posts at www.crossroad.to and www.herescope.com, but there are many areas where research and updating is still needed.

About Me

Check your daily "HERESCOPE." Herescope is an online journal revealing heresies and false teachings affecting the church today. Copyright 2005-2017 held by the author, IRG, Inc., or Discernment Ministries, Inc. unless otherwise noted. Herescope is a term coined by Lynn Leslie literally meaning "scoping out a heresy." Herescope began as a regular magazine column in The Christian Conscience magazine published during 1995-1998 by IRG, Inc. The Discernment Research Group is an ad hoc fellowship of Christian researchers with roots dating back to 1985. For more articles, books, and newsletters go to http://www.discernment-ministries.org.